Tragic
by ryf
Summary: One's dead. One's buried alive. And it's my fault." Jou's point of view. Sort of a sidefic to Ykarzel's Immortal.


A.N.  Hey. So… yeah. First of all, I must distribute total kudos to Ykarzel. If you haven't read any of her stuff, go do it. Now. Or after you read my story. As you go through her archive, you may notice a story entitled _Immortal _which seems rather familiar. I completely stole her plot, and I admit it openly. The explanation for this is a long (not) story involving an English teacher, cause and effect essay, and a giraffe. Well, scratch the giraffe. I checked with her before posting this, so you needn't worry about that.  I don't own Yugioh, in case you hadn't guessed, and Ykarzel owns this plot. Ahem.

* * *

One's dead. One's buried alive. And it's my fault. It was late at night, and he – they – were at my house. As hormonal teenagers are apt to do, we got into an argument. It doesn't really matter what it was about anymore. What matters is that it happened. I wound up screaming at him to get out of my house. Everyone knows that Domino isn't the safest place to be at night, but still I did it. Yugi ran out of the house, tears blurring his vision. So it's my fault. 

Let me introduce myself. My name is Katsuya Jounouchi**,** and I'm seventeen years old. I'm a fairly tall male, and I have sandy blond hair. Occupation: mourner. I recently acquired this position. My two best friends are gone, and as I told you before, it's my fault.

            Now, in any good story, certain things should be explained before jumping into the plot. Unfortunately for the reader, this is not a good story. Nor is it a happy one. However, I think what really happened needs to be recorded, and I have taken it upon myself to do this.

            Do you believe in magic? I didn't used to. Then I met Yugi. Yugi was special. His tri-colored hair defied gravity, he was extremely short, and he wasn't alone in his head. That's where Atemu comes in. Three-thousand years ago, he was a pharaoh in Egypt. A little while ago, his spirit shared Yugi's body. I don't entirely understand it, but apparently his soul was trapped in some ancient artifact called the "Sennen puzzle" which Yugi later acquired. Somehow Yugi "released" him. So, as I said before, now they share a body. Or they used to…. When they were alive, Yugi and Atemu were inseparable. Both metaphorically and literally, actually. They were two halves of a whole. Kinda like Yin and Yang. Each had a bit of the other within himself. Plus, they were in love. Now, you probably think I'm crazy. Maybe I am. However, I know what I'm telling you is true.

            Certain people in this world are exceptionally beautiful. Yugi was one of these people. He was the envy and object of adoration of many. However, beauty can sometimes be a curse. Sometimes, just sometimes, it can inspire hostility. I can only imagine that such was the occurrence that fateful evening. That was the night that I lost the first one. They were attacked.

            They were found, broken, bleeding, and unconscious. The thing is, it wasn't they anymore. It was just him. Atemu. He told me about it later, tears staining his ashen face. He had tried to take over, to save them both. However, it was too late. Yugi's soul was dead. So, Atemu was alone in his body. 

            The doorbell rang at two o'clock that morning. I opened the door and was shocked at what I saw. Atemu was standing there with a dazed look on his face. Clutched in his white-knuckled left hand was a kitchen knife. His right arm was outstretched, and crimson blood, glinting in the moonlight, was streaming from it. His lower lip trembled, and the slightest whisper of sound escaped from him: "I can't die…" I panicked, a sickening feeling rising in my stomach. I don't remember exactly what happened in my frenzy, but we wound up sitting in each other's arms on my front porch, tears racking Atemu's body as his unceasing blood soaked into my clothes.

            He told me that night, he told me everything. To me, Yugi was gone. I was devastated, but someday, I might be able to work through it. For Atemu, however, his literal soul mate, he hadn't left completely. Yugi was on the edge of reality, bound to this world by Atemu. He was too far gone to be restored, too close to find his peace. Yugi and Atemu rested on the edge of each other's consciousnesses, and it was tearing them apart. At one point, through their mental link, they would have been able to speak to each other with thoughts. That was gone now, but it had been replaced by something different. Something torturous. Their feelings, a bare echo of themselves would filter across the thin line that was their link. Atemu was dead. He had been dead for three-thousand years. But Yugi, he had been so alive. Atemu was his protector, his companion, his lover… his everything. Now, Atemu had failed him. The dead can't die again. Atemu was damned to eternal life. Life without Yugi. He couldn't die. As this sunk in, I leaned over and retched.

            He also mentioned something else. Perhaps it was supposed to comfort me, but in fact, it made me feel all the worse. He told me that before Yugi died, he forgave me. It was just like Yugi to have given this pardon. However, I know that if I hadn't sent him away, sent him out into a neighborhood where four had died in the past two months, none of this ever would have happened.

            It was three weeks later when I got the call. It was Atemu. He was done. I was instructed to meet him at the cemetery. After that, the line went dead. 

            You should know that when Yugi died, we had a funeral. The only thing is, there was nothing to bury. His poor, frail little form was inhabited by Atemu. So, the bowels of the earth encompassed an empty coffin, one that should have remained empty forever. As I stood before it, surveying it and the earthen pit that had until recently been its home, a tear rolled down my cheek. I turned to Atemu, asking if he was sure about this. There was no need for an answer as his crimson eyes, testifying to the hell he was in, told me he was. We embraced then, one last time, before he lowered himself into the coffin. As my shovel rained dirt down upon the closed lid, I thought I knew what Atemu was doing. He was letting go, to spend the rest of eternity reaching and straining for wisps of smoke. For Yugi. I don't understand it entirely, and I don't think anyone could. However, I do know this:  One's dead. One's buried alive. And it's my fault.


End file.
